U.S. Probation Officer Kenny Wingfield has been diagnosed
with polio, neurofibromatosis,
two blocked arteries and, yes,
multiple sclerosis (in 1992). He
has had a hip replacement, surgery
on his inner ear that permanently
affected his hearing and balance,
surgery on his right leg that considerably shortened it, and surgery
on an infected foot.

Kenny Wingfield on his other bike

So where do you typically
find Kenny? Either training for,
or riding in, a Bike MS ride,
including many of 150 or more
miles. He has participated in
over 30 rides, including a coast-to-coast ride from Los Angeles,
Calif., to Boston, Mass., in
2002, and a north-south ride
from International Falls, Minn.,
to New Orleans, La., in 2006.
“Today was just another day. If
you think getting up at 0500,
eating bowls of oatmeal and

Kenny Wingfield’scan-do attitude keepshim on the road.

fruit and drinking cups of O.J.
and coffee, and then getting on
a bicycle and pedaling over 65
miles is just another day! ;o)”
wrote Kenny in an online journal he kept of that adventure.

Kenny got started in histwo-wheeled quest to end MS in1991, just before he was diag-nosed. “I used to ride a bike as akid and the thoughtof training to ride150 miles in twodays seemed quitedemanding. Countme in!”But then, MSstepped in. “Afterriding my bike a fewdays, my right legbegan to go numb.I thought I hadpinched a nerve. Thenext morning, I wasrattled to the core when I foundmy entire body, from my chestto my toes, had gone numb!”After an MRI and spinal tap,a local neurologist diagnosedhim with MS. Another physi-cian adjusted the diagnosisto neurofibromatosis, benigntumors in Kenny’s nervoussystem. But after surgery andsix months, his body again wentnumb, confirming both diag-noses. Even so, after consultingwith his doctor, he began ridingagain, “slowly at first, but withdreams of returning to the roadsI once traveled.” And for thelast 20 years, he did live out hisdream, clocking over 10,000miles for the cause.